


Tea in Barcelona

by CyberRose (ParanoidActivity)



Series: Written on Your Self - Spoken on Your Soul [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: All the Doctors are related, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Donna related angst, F/M, Soul Bond, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-29
Updated: 2016-01-29
Packaged: 2018-05-17 00:23:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5846728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParanoidActivity/pseuds/CyberRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He rubbed his face with both hands and tried to think. There was only one true way to see if she was his. Make sure his first words to her were completely, obscenely, original. </p>
<p>Ten/Rose... Soulmate's first words written somewhere on your body.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tea in Barcelona

**Author's Note:**

> A combination of two things that I love in soul-mark fics... 1. You said what's on my soul mark and to make sure you didn't know what it was before hand, I'm going to say something really strange... 2. I grew up/went through hard times and your words meant everything to me.
> 
> x-x-x
> 
> 9 = Timothy (Tim) Lord  
> 10 = John Lord (Named after an uncle, 12)  
> 11 = Matthew (Matt) Lord
> 
> This is the first part of a series of Doctor Who SoulMark stories, all intertwining with the 'Lord' family. If you’re a multishipper like me, please check them out. If 10/Rose is the only pairing you like, stick to this one.
> 
> If there's enough interest, I'll continue with the story of John and Rose, and maybe Tim. (They ARE my absolute DW otp, but I have so many stories planned for them already.)
> 
> Other stories (for this series) I have planned are:  
> 11/Clara (Will post the first chapter tonight as well)  
> Amy/Rory (short story)  
> Jack/Ianto   
> 12/Missy (short story)  
> Pete/Jackie (short story)  
> The Lord Family Party (Where it all kinda comes together...)
> 
> If you have any requests for others, that would still fit into this world, feel free to tell me!

It’s a cold, mid-autumn evening when he stops by his Tim’s flat unannounced. His heart is aching and he’s not sure he can remember how to smile and the thought that maybe his sardonic, clear-headed, soldier-turned-security-guard cousin could sort him out brings him there.

Taking a deep breath and exhaling through his nose, he calms himself by squashing the thoughts, storing them in a neat, wrapped box in the corners of his mind. What he needs more than anything… is a cuppa.

Four swift knocks to the door before it swings open and the irritated face of his cousin appears in front of him, tilted slightly back into hallway. “Jack, I don’t have time for a cat, stop putting stupid ideas into her head!” His Northern accent would be something of a comfort to John, had it not implied that he was not, in fact, alone right now.

There was a giggle from the kitchen, clearly a woman, before ‘Jack’ replied, “You’re just bitter about the cat lady from the hospital!”

Tim turned back to John and with a sigh, he nodded. John couldn’t help but smile a bit at the obvious inside joke as the woman’s laughter washed over them like a song. “True.” He replied over his shoulder, “So drop it. Hello, John.”

“Hello.” The younger of the two echoed back, releasing the word like a sigh. “I’m um… Sorry, if you’re busy, I was just…”

“Who says I’m busy? These kids are always here.”

“Oi, I’m not a child!” The woman called out, earning a laugh from Jack this time.

Tim ignored her though, appraising his cousin’s appearance and pulling him into the hallway for a talk. “Be back in a bit, just need to have a word with my cousin.”

Jack poked his head from around the corner. The man was particularly handsome and his smile shined. “Cousin, you say?”

“Down boy.” Tim replied, closing the door behind them.

The hallway was empty and cold, dim lights and the setting sun causing the raindrops on the window to send flecks of sparkling light over the dingy carpeting. He avoided meeting Tim’s eyes.

“You look like hell, John.” It was a simple statement and he pushed no further than that, allowing his younger cousin to open when he felt like it.

“I um… I went to see Donna… today. At-at the hospital.” He took a shuddering breath before scratching the back of his neck and clearing his throat. “She recognized me this time.”

“That’s good, right?”

“She was begging me to help her escape. Says she hates it there.” He closed his eyes and swallowed. “I want to help her. God, she’s done so much for me, but I can’t… There was nothing I could do and it…” He sighed, stopping mid-sentence, like he couldn’t bear to continue. Tim wasn’t the type to push, either.

“You want a drink?”

“Just tea, please.” John was grateful for the turn in the conversation.

“Of course.”

They headed back inside, Tim walking confidently back into his flat and announcing that John would be staying for a while. He introduced him to Jack, who winked at him and got reprimanded, again, for his flirtatious nature and to Rose who he nodded to. She replied with a small smile and ran off to make the tea Tim asked for.

“So… Who are these people?” John asked Tim, when Jack ran off to ‘help’ Rose in the kitchen. Whatever that meant.

Timothy Lord was not known for being a social butterfly or for being particularly agreeable at all, even in the best of times. Being a hardened soldier, he was weary around new people and the thought he had made such… amiable friends? It was very strange.

“Friends.” He said it as though it were the most obvious thing in the world… which it was. John replied with a raised eyebrow and a lowered chin. “Alright, I met Rose at her job at Henrik’s. Place was being robbed by people who didn’t know there was an employee still in the building. Got her out and we went for chips after. Met Jack a while later.”

“Please don’t tell that story.” John jumped a bit, as Jack entered the room with a plate of biscuits, setting it on the table in front of Tim. He looked almost pained as he explained to the younger Lord, “Not my finest moment, to be honest.”

“No kidding?” Rose came back into the room, two mugs in either hand, looking at Jack. “You’re lucky no one got hurt, in the end.”

“Exactly.” Tim chimed in, taking a mug and leaning back again, the leather of his jacket creaking against the cheap fabric of the couch they sat on.

John gratefully took his mug, too, relishing in the warmth it provided his trembling fingers, before taking a sip. He was only vaguely aware that Rose was watching him out of the corner of his eye. Just before he thanked her, though, she spoke.

“My mum always makes me a cuppa when I’m feeling down or I’m sick, like it’ll solve any problem in the world and it’s become a habit of mine too, I guess. I hope it helps.”

The ‘thank you’ died on his tongue and he set down the mug as his cousin quickly stood. Tim was obviously holding back a grin, but John couldn’t have been more terrified. Of all the moments it could have happened, of all the people in the world that could have said it to him. It was so simple, so sweet.

Words he had read a thousand times, probably more, over the course of his life. A mantra for whenever he’d been down, something that pulled him through the darkest of days… Knowing he’d still meet his tea-reliant soul mate.

His mind blanked and he hardly noticed as his cousin dragged Jack into his office, asking for help with something or other that suddenly ‘needed’ to be done.

Rose, without understanding what was happening in the flurry of motion, decided to pick this moment to run off to the kitchen again and John was left on his own, staring at the mug of tea on the table. The mug of tea that caused it all.

Without thinking, John pulled off his jacket and unbuttoned the left cuff of his shirt, lifting the fabric to his elbow, where the words were written in large, loopy letters.

_‘My mum always makes me a cuppa when I’m feeling down or I’m sick, like it’ll solve any problem in the world and it’s become a habit of mine too, I guess.’_

He remembers the exact moment when it appeared on his arm. Back then, it was childish chicken-scratch with backwards ‘e’s and little hearts over the ‘I’s. He had been 15 and the prospect that his soul mate was so much younger than him had made him a little sick.

But the years passed and the writing matured, bit by bit, losing the hearts (which he found sadder than anything) and becoming smaller with time (which he was grateful for, it was quite a large sentence to have spread out over your inner forearm.) Fifteen years had passed, he was 30 now and not sure he’d ever meet this mysterious tea-woman. Though by his best guess, she couldn’t be more than 23.

She looked it, too. Warm eyes, blonde hair and a giant smile. She was beautiful and perfect, but could she really be his _destiny_? His right hand rubbed gently over the words, like they would rub off if he was too rough.

Perhaps, in a moment of misplaced pity, Tim had told her what to say.

Which, other than being completely illegal and un-Tim-like, didn’t seem likely at all. She was wearing a T-shirt and a typical lace sleeve that covered the words written on her arm as well. Good sign, that. That they’d both have the words on the same arm. Also unlikely if they weren’t soul mates.

He rubbed his face with both hands and tried to think. There was only one true way to see if she was his. Make sure his first words to her were completely, obscenely original.

-o-

Rose stood in the kitchen, doing more cleaning than she would even do in her own flat. Dishes, wiping down counters, cleaning out the drain in the sink, throwing out molding food and washing those dishes, as well… All to avoid the obviously distressed man in the living room.

The disheveled, handsome cousin of her best friend who had raindrops on the edges of his beautiful, shaggy hair when he walked in. Rose had watched them drip down the side of his face with a bit too much interest and had to shake herself out of her thoughts when it traveled down the sharp lines of his neck.

He was obviously upset about something, she could see the sadness in his eyes, the same way she had seen it in Tim’s, two years back. They may not look alike, but she wasn’t surprised they were related in the least.

‘ _Besides_ ,’ she thought to herself, drying her hands on a towel and eyeing the wet edges of the lace that covered her soul mark with untraceable affection. ‘ _I’ve already got plans. Shouldn’t be flirting with strangers, anyway._ ’

She set the rag down and turned around to find John standing in the doorway. Damn, if he didn’t have amazing hair, though.

“D-do you need something?” He looked almost scary, eyes intense and lips pursed like he had something incredibly important and serious to say.

Before he spoke, he took a deep breath and she took a step back.

“We should go to Barcelona, there’s a sweet homeless dog that lives in an alley with no nose and no owner, just a stray that’s taken care of by the locals, with _no nose_ , can you _imagine_?” The tense ache in his shoulders subsided when Rose broke out into a massive grin, which quickly turned to a nearly hysterical laughter.

Slowly he approached her, taking her left arm gently in his hand and undoing the buttons that held the lace cuff together. And there the words he had just spoken lay, splayed out on her forearm, written in his Doctor-quality scribbles. Rose was still softly laughing as John looked up into her eyes, as he realized that this was really his soul mate. His _soul mate_!!

“Imagine how many times I’ve told people that, and it's still funny!” She was smiling widely at him, her eyes shining in the dim light of the kitchen.

He felt flutters in his stomach as she pushed his sleeve up, too, revealing her little speech about tea and her mother.

“Mum is never gonna let me live this down.” She sighed, rolling her eyes while still smiling. “Great first words, me. Really glad that’s tattooed on your arm.”

“Oh, don’t say that.” His voice was strained, almost dreamy as he continued to stare at her with an intensity she wasn’t entirely bothered by. “You don’t know how many times, I… How often these words have carried me through the hardest times. Oh, Rose. They’re _everything_ to me.”

The woman stared up at him through thick lashes, smile gone, but with a level of empathy he didn’t want to look into. “Then I really hope you enjoyed the cup I gave you.” She moved closer to him, so close, his chin was nearly pressed into his neck as he couldn’t bring himself to break their eye contact. “You know… since you’ve been waiting for it for 15 years.”

With a small smirk, she draped her arms around his neck. He leaned down into her, wrapping her in his arms and burying his face into the small of her neck to just… breathe. “Besides, I can’t imagine living with what’s on yours was much better. Should have thought that through a little more.”

She melted into his embrace with an airy laugh, “Oh but I love it! I still remember the day it popped up, mum couldn’t stop laughing! I had no idea what was going on.”

John was grinning then, still holding tight, despite her relaxing in his grip. “Still, you were rather young. Must have upset her a bit, to see the handwriting of a teenager?”

“I don’t think she ever minded.” Rose’s voice was soft and warm, sending chills up his spine. “Mom is one of the huge believers in soul bonds. Like the Universe has been preparing to bring our souls together since the beginning of time, type believer. Nothing should stand in the way of that.”

He closed his eyes, lips only resting against the soft flesh of her neck. “And what do you believe, Rose?”

She shivered against him, pressing just a bit closer until their bodies were flush against each other. “I believe that despite having met you less than an hour ago… I’m ready to spend forever with you.” Rose gently pulled back a bit, to look him in the eyes. “I guess before now, I didn’t really get what she meant by ‘everything changes’. But I can feel it, can’t you? Like a real, tangible…” He hadn’t realized he’d been staring at her lips until she stopped talking.

“Bond?” He offered. She gave a small nod in response. “When I first came in, I heard you laugh. I don’t know if this is because of the bond, but… Oh, it was like angels singing. Been having a… bad day and it made me smile. Maybe I knew.”

“Maybe you did.” She was smiling again and without thinking, he tightened his arms around her waist, pulling her just a bit closer. “And maybe I wanted to kiss a raindrop off your cheek.”

He raised his eyebrows at this and she laughed. “Kiss a… you silly girl.”

“You might just grow to love me.”

“I know I will.” He replied definitively.

Her smile turned into a tongue touched grin and before he could think of the heat that image caused inside of him, there was a cough near the entrance of the kitchen.

“You had _better_.” Tim stood with his arms crossed looking like a scorning older-brother with Jack grinning over his shoulder.

Rose stepped away from John, smiling at the other two men. “You knew what the words in his mark were, didn’t you.”

Tim nodded, continuing to watch Rose as she looked up at John. There was a flash of sadness in those icy blue eyes and John felt a small pang of guilt.

Still though, nothing could be done about that. Soul mates, after all.

_She’s really here. My tea girl._

He smiled down at the woman now holding his hand.

“Don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it. Jackie is known to try and fix all ills with tea.” Any negative emotions were well hidden in Tim’s voice as he smiled at the couple.

Jack laughed, “Very British.”

The older cousin tilted his head a bit, “What the hell was with the dog story, John.”

Again, Jack was first to reply, “God, that was hilarious. You should have seen her show it off after we met. She couldn’t stop laughing, telling the story.”

John wrapped an arm around Rose’s waist and gently tugged her back to his side. “Ah, that was a story Matt told me a few years ago. When he was on his honeymoon. I always wanted to go see that dog.” He added after, “Matt is another cousin of ours.”

“Huh. He never told me.”

“You generally try to avoid him at family gatherings.”

Tim nodded, head tilted back. “He’s obnoxious.”

“And you scare him.” John felt Rose’s hand move and their fingers ended up intertwined. His heart fluttered just a bit.

Tim rolled his eyes. “I suppose this means that Rose will be at our next ‘family gathering’, then.”

John used his free hand to toy with his ear as he shrugged. “I dunno, maybe we could avoid that?” With a little scoff as a warning from Rose, he clarified. “For your own sake, believe me.”

“They’re pretty horrible.” Tim agreed.

“Like that’ll keep Rose from going.” Jack chimed in.

“Exactly.” She replied from his side. “You can’t hide me away forever, you know. Better to get it over with. They can’t be _that_ bad.”

“ _Well_...” John said with a hitch in his voice, “Yes they can. Trust me.”

Rose rolled her eyes again.

Jack laughed, “You can’t stop her, but don’t worry, Jackie’s a bit of a handful as well.”

Tim nodded at this with raised eyebrows. “I do not envy either of you for introductions.”

The woman shrugged, resting her head on John’s shoulder. “Mum will want to meet you right away, so we’d better get to know each other now.” She looked up at him with a small smile and he cleared his throat.

“Yes, that’s… probably true. Martha took my shift at the hospital tomorrow for... other reasons... so I'm off… you?”

Rose nodded and gave him another tongue touched grin.

**Author's Note:**

> Whether or not I continue this story, these two will still feature in the Lord Family Party story, whenever that gets written. Poor Rose really has NO IDEA. :)


End file.
